Mattresses and Priuses . . . Oh my!!!

Down visiting in the Buckeye AZ area from NE Oregon. Wife is assisting daughter in recovery from cadaver ligament placement in knee. Decided to take a Sunday drive to Scottsdale and a nice dinner out. Going north on the 101 between Mesa and Scottsdale a pickup in front of us lost part of a mattress set - the box platform under the mattress. Rather than crash into vehicles on either side of us I hit the piece in the process of slowing down. Extensive damage to right front bumper area. Innards of right wheel well stripped away. These parts and other damage (?) will have to be replaced, I assume. Waiting for other guy's insurance adjustor to come out and view damage. Pictures will be posted by next Tuesday. Like oil and water, mattresses and Priuses do NOT mix ... well!!! As I have to be back in Oregon this coming Monday to relieve pet sitters it looks like I will have to drive damaged Prius to my dealer in Lewiston ID; I can't see any way that claims adjustor, ordering parts and installing parts can be accomplished by this Friday. Could leave Prius in Arizona for repairs but will other guy's insurance company - Farmers - fly me home and fly me back when repairs are done? Further, flying home will require someone to drive 4 hours r/t to fetch me from Lewiston airport back to Joseph. Sheesh!!!

Oy that's some bad luck.

Lets see. First rock chip. First mattress hit.
Damn if not for bad luck you wouldn't have any.
Get a Hummer maybe? LOL

Sorry for your damage.

Oh No! Hope you all weren't too shook up over the event. What a site that must have been, seeing a mattress coming at you

Safe travels back home!

I thought that the air bags were supposed to be inside the car, not in front of it.

Keith.

P.S. Sorry about your loss....

You're lucky. If that mattress was airborne, it has enough mass that it likely would've come through the windshield.

In case you haven't already noticed, we get a lot of road alligators here in the summer - and if you hit one of those, they likely will do serious damage to some part of the underside of the car. It's the nature of where we live. When temps hit 100+ degrees, and people run around with under-inflated tires or nearly-bald tires or cheap tires, guess what..... bam! Either a blowout or the tread comes off.

Glad you came out okay.

Uh Oh. When my wife hit a pole in the HH it damaged the inner wheel well and it needed replaced. They have to remove the engine to do that. It's been 5 weeks so far with a couple more to go befor the repairs are completed and the HH returned to me. No Toyota bodyshop in the area so it had to be towed to get the engine removed by a Toyota Technician and then will have to go back to reinstall after the wheel well is replaced. Then they start on the body work

Martin sorry about your problem. You are probably already aware of this but just in case you haven't thought of it you could also get your own insurance company involved if you had to. You can claim it against your collision insurance, pay the deductible, and let your insurance company collect from the other guy's company. Then your company will pay you back the deductible when they collect. May not be any advantage to doing it that way in this case but it's something to keep in mind.

If there is no suspension damage I would drive the car home and get it fixed in Lewiston by your dealer, you may get a better job and you will be there to keep an eye on things. Good luck.

Ah so you hit a box spring, wooden frame and all. A mattress on the road would probably not have done much if any damage. Bummer.

Does AZ have a 'secured load' law? And did you file a police report? If yes on both, then the criminal liability from damage by a lost load should convince them to cover your transportation while your Prius is unusable. My state has suffered so many deaths and maimings from dropped loads and vehicle parts that enforcement is being fairly harsh.

Would you consider driving a one-way rental home, then flying back to AZ after the car is fixed? When my only boo-boo happened during an out-of-state vacation, this was my best option. Got a second vacation out of it. The biggest problem was getting the spouse to calm down enough to allow me to make alternate transportation plans. The second biggest problem was TSA's more intensive scrutiny of one-way fliers.

Is this the origin of the term "Go to the mattresses"? All along I though it was from The Godfather.

I'm glad you had the presence of mind to avoid a desperate high-speed maneuver. So often these things end in tragedy when someone swerves to avoid a minor impact. You did the right thing.

Tom

This type of damage seems to be more frequent than in the past. I see a lot of idiots driving down the freeway with twine holding a mattress onto the roof of their piece of XXXX cars. I see a lot of large items lying on the freeway and shoulder. I have seen CHP just drive right pass the asshats on the freeway without giving them a second glance.

Follow-up: Accident happened Sunday afternoon. I contacted my insurance company that evening; claims agent supposed to call within 24 hours! Ha! Contacted other driver's insc. co. Monday morning, early. Their claims agent supposed to assess damage to my car; Hello??? Timeline is shortened to the point where I just about have to drive north to relieve pet sitters (2 dogs, 5 cats, 1 horse) and plant waterer.

Driving back to Buckeye after the accident I tested steering and brakes at good speed and had no pulling to the side so feel that alignment & brakes are suitable for the 1300 mile trip back to Oregon, plus additional 80 miles to dealership's auto body repair in Lewiston, ID.

Did not file a police report; good/bad? Did utilize my driver ed. teaching background to steer a straight course down freeway lane to avoid complications with other traffic. Use to tell my student drivers to do the same; if necessary hit what ever object may be in your lane while applyng the brakes but stay IN your lane!!!

Thanks for your good thoughts and ideas.

I'm not an expert, but surely you need to do this if damage is over some threshold ($1000 in my jurisdiction) which from the sound of it yours will be.

I agree if you haven't filed an accident report you need to do so, soon. Your insurance company should have reminded you to do so.

So sorry this happened. What an ordeal. So glad no one was injured.


I agree with the others, definitely do a police report.

Talk to the other guys insurance company and ask what they are willing to do for you. At the very least, they will provide you with a rental car.

Glad you are okay!!

The insurance adjustor for the other guy comes out Thursday AM - tomorrow, four days after the accident & two days before I need to head home! Supposedly he/she will work up an estimate of repairs that I can then take to my Lewiston, Idaho dealer's auto body repair facility. I want to know 1) if he/she has ever before seen a 2010 Prius for adjustment determination, 2) are repair costs limited to that determined by the adjustor? - Lewiston shop is not on Farmers approved repair facility list, 3) what happens if that determined amount is under actual cost? What other questions should I ask the adjustor?

For the latest news visit thread "Body repair estimate as follows"; I now have in hand two checks: one for approx. $1100 for repairs & another for $60 to cover cost of rental car during repairs. Since I have to have my front bumper replaced I will inquire about the added cost of painting those grey plastic foglight covers with the same auto body color. It shouldn't cost too much, do you think? :thumb:ound:

Be careful on that check thing. I have heard that once you cash the checks the "payout" is considered paid in full and if it costs you more you might be out of luck. You may want to wait to cash those until you can confirm the cost of the repair. Can anyone confirm this to be the case?

Oh yea it shouldn't cost anything if they will do it. I wouldn't paint them, since the parts being painted are rubber/plastic I would be worried that they would crack and peal.

Edit: On another note. I has a similar thing happen last week. I was driving behind a pontoon boat and a table came flying out. Luckily I was practicing proper fuel economy strategy and had left myself significant room to coast/glide to the next stop light so I was able to avoid it. I realize leaving that much room is an impossibility in most areas.

I'm sorry to hear about the damage to your vehicle, that really sucks on a new car.
G